Chapter 3 – Day 3: Finding Your Inner Thespian – La Prononciation

You know how we say an owl instead of a owl in English? Have you ever wondered why?

It is because a owl produces awkward and choppy flow of pronunciation due to two vowels being placed next to each other. The simple answer is, it does not sound pretty. Somewhere in the evolution of the English language, the n was added to create flow between a and a word starting with a vowel. Liaison is kind of like that.

In French, liaison typically takes a traditionally silent consonant (like deux, or two) at the end of a word and changes it so that it is blended and linked up with the following word beginning with a vowel or mute h (like amis, or friends). The resulting pronunciation looks like this:

Example:

Deux [deu] + Amis [ah mee] = [deu zah mee]

Note: Many liaison forms tend to add a z or t sound to create the link between the two words. Keep this in mind as you note the various examples.

It may sound strange to foreigners, but just like its name, liaison links two words together to create quick, fluid speech. Turning a and apple into the pronunciation hybrid that sounds a lot like one word (“anapple”) would sound strange to foreigners as well, so know that you are not alone.  

Liaison is another one of those otherworldly exceptions that seems like a magical formula to the foreign ear. Trust me, there is a method to this madness, and once you have it mastered, your own muscle memory will automatically integrate it into your speech, just like we do in English. Saying it the improper way just will not “sound right” anymore. 

There are two different types of liaison that we will be focusing on today.

Required Liaisons

Required liaisons are exactly what they sound like: required. They are universally pronounced, and this makes them the most important to remember.

          1. Nominal Group

Article, Number, or Adjective + Noun or Adjective

Listen to Track 34

2. Verbal Group

Pronoun + Verb or Adjective or Verb + Pronoun or Pronoun + Pronoun

Listen to Track 35

3. Single Syllable Adverbs, Conjunctions, and Prepositions

Listen to Track 36

4. Quand / est-ce que ***

Listen to Track 37

5. Many Fixed Expressions – here are just a few examples:

Listen to Track 38

Forbidden Liaisons

Forbidden liaisons could be referred to as an anti-liaison exception. In these instances, the liaison must not be pronounced. This exception arises when employing pronunciation would cause confusion (like using liaison on a name) or when using liaison would sound too much like another phrase.

Example:

                               Manon est parti.   Manon left.

In this instance, liaison between Manon, a French girl’s name, and est would not be useful. It would mar the purity of the pronunciation of Manon as a name. Along with this, est parti is the past tense conjugation of the verb partir, which means to leave. Because est is part of the past tense conjugation, utilizing liaison could also cause confusion as to whether we are really using the past tense.

Here are some specific instances where forbidden liaisons are used:

1. After a singular noun

Listen to Track 39

2. After names

Listen to Track 40

3. After et (and)

Listen to Track 41

4. In front of an h aspiré

Listen to Track 42

5. In front of onze and oui 

Listen to Track 43

6. After interrogative adverbs *** and toujours

Listen to Track 44

7. After inversion

Listen to Track 45

In closing, liaison is something you will come across every single day of your journey through the French language. Learning it will make you sound more and more like a native speaker, and keeping it in mind when others are speaking will help you to recognize words affected by it and not be tripped up.